Uukrul: The First Task

Part of the Fate of Heroes series - spoilers ahead!

While resting at the hermit's zone, the paladin Lazybum and sorceress Sarina who were already resting here join the team, and Sagaris asks them all to retrieve his black rod from the next floor down which he warns is far more dangerous (because apparently increased pressure makes things tough/evil I guess).

The fully powered squad heads down stairs and promptly gets owned. Pluribus is acidified by a rancid mold, Ila gets devoured by a giant spider, Yen Sid fails to turn "the happiest zombies ever" that tear him and Sarina apart and Lazybum gets one shotted by a giant bat who does 90(!) points of damage in a single strike.

So happy!

Balthazarr barely makes it back to Sagaris' safe zone in defeat. Clearly he needs a team with more training so using the super handy nearby teleporter (provided you remember the name of the one you want to warp to) returns to town to assemble a new squad, composed of the war priestess Kebiroz, Nabirye the hunter paladin, and Null25 the pk mage.

The first task is: Training!!!

Sunset Six: Looking for Group

[Part of my Sunset Six story.]

The discipline of Worship holds for me, what are hands down the hardest set of tests. While comparatively they don't need as many of the exorbitant items for constructing things they are still usually required as offerings but the real challenge is that all tests needs a group of people. Let's start with the Test of Vigil.

A favored test of pyromaniacs.

In it, you build a large fire then listen to the flames for what it wants to consume. You then have a time limit to get all the said items (which can be anything in game) and burn it. The rarity and number of items increases the longer the Vigil goes on. Failure to burn the requirements on time ends the fire. You individually gain points equal to the number of sacrifices you made multiplied by the number of sacrifices made by -other people-, meaning if you attempt to do this alone you get ZERO points. Highest scores pass the test.

If that sounds tough, you should see the Test of Beacons. Doing some random mundane activity has a chance of attracting a holy altar to spawn nearby. Once it does you have three in game minutes to anchor it to this plane of existence through meditation... by three people. Once anchored the three anchorers have thirty minutes to work out the proper ritual as it only gives each of them a fragmented piece. If you manage to do all of that seven times (including anchoring) you pass.

Anchoring fail, as we needed one more person.

Sunset Six: Marriage Goods

[Part of my Sunset Six story.]

Balance of Goods continues the theme of Harmony which is guesswork, only this time you need to construct something first: an offering vault. Once built you can then load it with items of your choice (one unit per item) which are then taken up by the gods. You get points for each, but you get more if no one else puts the same item in their vault that week. My optimum strategy? Put as much garbage in there as you can. :P

After passing the test, it also becomes an awesome storage space.

The final test of Harmony I'll talk about is the easiest to pass but one I'm definitely not going to for moral reasons: the Test of Marriage. Yep, pixel murdering is OK but pixel marriage to anyone else but my real wife (who doesn't play this game) is definitely off the table. Anyway, all you need are some pretty common items, an altar for a quick ceremony, five witnesses and boom, you are married. Egypt is also pretty progressive in that you can marry an avatar of any gender and once married you gain the ability to instantly warp to them. Pretty cool right?

There's a small catch: Once married your spouse has access to all your stuff and all your constructs. They can also log in as you. Good thing divorce in game is pretty easy huh? :P The most common solution it seems is that people simply make alts and then marry themselves! That wasn't the case in the next picture though.

Kokabeel and Kamots wedding!

Sunset Six: Acrobatic Mechanics

[Part of my Sunset Six story.]

The school of Body has perhaps the easiest initiation task of simply running around and finding 35 different plant species in 20 minutes, but that is followed by one of the most time consuming tests around: the Test of the Acrobat. Basically you are given seven facets of one move and are then sent out into the world to learn and teach from others to master -every move available-. You can only teach moves you have seven facets in, and can only learn one facet of each move from everyone you meet.

That list scrolls a LOT.

It's actually worse than that though, because of a random hidden attribute that each character has - you simply cannot learn from some people and vice versa. Sometimes even those who are master level teachers to you still are unable to teach anything because the particular facet they teach (only 1 of the 7 per move) might be one you already have. The solution?

Acro with everyone!

Similar to that is how the mechanics skill works in game. All the automated machinery can be tuned up to level 7 (making them run faster or produce things more efficiently), but the luck factor of the hidden attribute per person, per machine exists again meaning some things you -can- tune up and others you cannot. The 20 minute cool down after any tune-up attempt also helps prevent "tune spamming".

Whee, the only thing I've been able to tune so far.

A long time player named Lazybum actually told me that for his machines he gets a bunch of eight or so people around to try tune things for two hours. Any machines that don't make it to level 5 he tears down and rebuilds. Contrary to his name, I get the feeling he actually is very productive and has a ton of resources at his disposal.

Sunset Six: Initiate +3

[Part of my Sunset Six story.]

The initiation task for Art and Music is an interesting one in which you construct your own sculpture in which you can use pretty much anything in game as part of the design.

You can make odd things like I did or more commonly...

... they are used for signs. :)

Similarly, the discipline of Thought requires you construct an empty hand puzzle and let a number of other players solve and rate it, requiring a "good" or better to pass. This is tricky as making it too simple or too frustrating can lead people to giving you a low score.

I made mine pretty simple.

Lastly, the initiation of Worship is one I didn't think I'd ever pass as not only do you need a sacrifice a number of ritual components under a time limit but you also require a partner who has not yet passed that initiation. I was in luck that another new player named Sarina was keen on getting it done and with Balthazarr's help with providing supplies along with prompts for recited incantations that require perfect typing, we both passed with a double zap.

It involves jugs.